Herman is optimistic about his appeal now pending at
the State Supreme Court, where a decision is expected anytime. On
September 19, 2006, State Judicial Commissioner Rachel Morgan
recommended overturning Herman's conviction, on grounds that prison
officials had withheld evidence from the jury that prison officials
had bribed the prosecution's key eyewitness, Hezekiah Brown, in
return for his testimony. However, in May 2008, in a 2-1 vote, the
State Appeals Court rejected Morgan's recommendation and refused to
overturn the conviction. Herman has appealed this to the State
Supreme Court, which will either affirm or reverse the lower
court's decision.

If you haven't heard them yet, be sure to listen to
Herman's many broadcasts at Prison Radio. Listen here.

Kudos To Parnell Herbert!

The new play "Angola 3", written by
Parnell Herbert, premiered at Loyola University in New Orleans, LA
on September 18. Read the review and interview with Parnell Herbert
on pages 10 and 11 of the Data News Weekly here.
For more information about this amazing play, read here.

In his new article, published by The Crime Report,
James Ridgeway writes:

The deaf face a nightmare when they fall into the
criminal justice system. They live in a world apart to begin with;
but in prison they are thrown into a dread new environment where
they literally can't understand the language of either their
jailers or the other prisoners. When people who have never heard a
spoken word try to speak, the sounds come out jumbled
and weird-leading ill-informed jailers to think they are
obstreperous or crazy. As a consequence, some deaf prisoners can
end up in solitary.

I discovered numerous examples of abuses and
violations of the rights of deaf prisoners as part of an ongoing
investigative reporting project. But the most troubling
discovery I made was how little has been done about the problem in
the criminal justice system-and how little is known about it
outside prison walls.

Once again we are asking for your help with a phone
and fax campaign to demand that CA Attorney General Jerry Brown
drop the charges against Francisco Torres, the last of the SF8
still facing prosecution. Brown has not yet dropped the charges
against Francisco Torres, but he knows there is no case against
him. He needs to get the message from people all over the country
that we will not give up this just demand.

The Maine Prisoner Action Coalition has launched an
important new campaign to end solitary confinement and other forms
of torture in Maine State Prisons.

Over the past three months, concerned Maine
citizens have worked to develop appropriate legislation to address
longstanding abuses in the segregation units of Maine State
Prisons. Last week, Representative Jim Schatz (Blue Hill) submitted
the legislation. This is an important step to create the critical
dialogue necessary to advocate for true prison reform in this state
and end human-rights violations in our correctional facilities.
Attached to this email is the bill language in its entirety.READ THE PDF HERE.

Now the Legislative Council will decide whether to
accept the bill for the upcoming 2010 legislative session. THEY
MAKE THEIR DECISION ON OCTOBER 15th. The Legislative Council
comprises of leadership from both the Democratic and Republican
parties from both the House and the Senate. Every other year in
Maine, the state's legislative session is a "short" or
"emergency" session.